Thursday, June 25, 2009

OH, PUHLEAZE. Nobody, I mean, nobody is believing that old trick card from a very old playbook. for real.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Barack Obama of behaving like his White House predecessor and called on him to apologize for what he called U.S. interference following Iran's elections.

Obama has ramped up his previously muted criticism, saying he was "appalled and outraged" by a crackdown on protests which followed Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.

"Mr. Obama made a mistake to say those things ... our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously (former U.S. President George W.) Bush used to say," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Before the election, the Obama administration had indicated that it was interested in reaching out to Iran, after years of a diplomatic freeze following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran has given no clear signal that it is interested in Obama's overture, and in the wake of the election, the U.S. leader has slowly ratcheted up his criticism of Iran.

Meanwhile, 70 university professors were detained in Iran in a widening government crackdown on protesters, according to a Web site affiliated with opposition politician Mir Hossein Mousavi, who says he was robbed of victory in a rigged presidential election.

The professors were detained on Wednesday, immediately after meeting with Mousavi, the Kalemeh site said. The report said it is not clear where the detainees were taken.

Mousavi said for the first time Thursday that he is being isolated by authorities and pressured to drop his presidential election challenge. read more here....

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